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End Point Assessment Centre

With the introduction of the new Retail Apprenticeship standards, End Point Assessments (EPA) have been introduced. This independent EPA aims to confirm that the competence apprentices’ have developed meet the standards set by the Retail Industry. To ensure consistency and impartiality the EPA cannot be carried out by the training provider delivering the apprenticeship.

RM Training will work closely with your apprenticeship provider to provide a smooth transition from the training phase to the EPA phase where learners will receive an independent and impartial EPA graded outcome.

The cost of the EPA will be covered within your apprenticeship agreement and negotiated by the training provider and ourselves if appropriate or if necessary between RM Training (UK) Limited and yourselves. Through our Retailer Independent EPA arrangements RM Training will provide consistent, impartial, reliable and valid assessment of the Retailer Apprenticeship Standard, ensuring that your apprentice’s learning outcomes, knowledge, skills and competence meet the criteria outlined by the Industry developed Standards and Assessment plan; enabling them to work with confidence and efficiency as a Retailer within your company.

Once your apprentice’s have completed their training and demonstrated capability and competence over time including achieving the appropriate level of Maths and English we will liaise with your training provider to hold a readiness for end assessment meeting with yourself and those within your company involved in the mentoring and support of your apprentice’s .

At this meeting the End Point Assessment will be arranged to meet the assessment methods and timeframe stipulated in the assessment plan RM Training (UK) Limited has an excellent and competent End Point Assessment team who will advise and guide you and your apprentices through the process.

We will assign an independent EPA assessor to your organisation to conduct the EPA in line with the requirements of the industry as outlined below: Retailer Apprenticeship Level 2 Standard EPA Assessment Methods and Process Knowledge Testing – This is the first element and must be completed first, we will arrange and conduct an EPA knowledge test, that will take the form of a multiple choice scenario based online test provided by the Retail Governing Body People 1st that will be externally marked.

This test will be held either on your premises or offsite at one of our training centres.

Observation – we will plan and complete a two hour observation of your apprentice’s in their retail environment aimed at enabling them to demonstrate the maximum required range of skills, knowledge and behaviours, focussing on the customer, communication, brand reputation and all other components as described within the standard and assessment plan. We will use our e-portfolio system, Smart Assessor to evidence the outcomes met.The observation will be recorded using a digital recorder in bite size recordings that will be mapped holistically to the outcomes required.

Professional Discussion – we will plan a structured discussion between your apprentice’s, you the employer and our EPA assessor to establish the apprentice’s understanding and application of knowledge, skills and behaviours focusing on how they have performed during the apprenticeship and their overall achievement of the standard. Some outcomes will be met in both the observation and professional discussion.

Completion – RM Training (UK) limited will then grade and mark the components of the EPA and award a final grade based on the combined grading outcome process as stipulated in the Assessment plan. We will notify the issuing body of the outcome and submit the apprentice’s documentation for certification. At all stages of the independent EPA we will implement rigorous quality assurance observations and evidence moderation to ensure all standards and judgements are comparable and consistent in meeting the requirements of the industry standard.